David Davis was born on 23 December 1948 in York to a single mother, Betty Brown.[1] He was initially raised by his grandparents, with his maternal grandfather, Walter Harrison, the son of a wealthy trawlerman, but was disinherited after joining the Communist Party; he led a "hunger march" to London shortly after the more famous Jarrow March, which did not allow Communists to participate.[2] His father, whom he met once after his mother's death, was Welsh.[1] After his mother married Ronald Davis the family moved to London, where they lived initially in a flat in Wandsworth, which Davis has described as "a terrible little slum". Later, after his half-sister was born, the family moved to a council estate in Tooting, his stepfather being a shop steward at Battersea Power Station.[3]
Davis went to Bec Grammar School in Tooting, and when he left, his A Level results were not good enough to secure a university place. He subsequently worked as an insurance clerk and became a soldier in the Territorial Army's 21 SAS (Artists) to earn the money needed to retake his examinations. After doing so he won a place at the University of Warwick, where he graduated with a BSc Joint Hons in Molecular Science and Computer Science in 1971. While at Warwick he was one of the founding members of the student radio station, University Radio Warwick. While a student, Davis was active in the Federation of Conservative Students, becoming national chairman in 1973.[4] Davis worked for Tate & Lyle for 17 years, rising to become a senior executive, including restructuring its troubled Canadian subsidiary, Redpath Sugar.[5] He wrote about his business experiences in the 1988 book How to Turn Round a Company.[6]
Parliamentary career
Davis was first elected to Parliament in the 1987 general election as the MP for Boothferry, when he was elected with 55.7% of the vote and a majority of 18,970.[7] At the 1992 general election, Davis was re-elected as MP for Boothferry with a decreased vote share of 54.8% and a decreased majority of 17,535.[8] Davis's constituency of Boothferry was abolished in 1997 and replaced with the new constituency of Haltemprice and Howden. At the 1997 general election, Davis was elected as MP for Haltemprice and Howden, winning with 44% of the vote and a majority of 7,514.[9]
In 1999, Davis presented the Parliamentary Control of the Executive Bill to the House of Commons, in which he proposed to transfer ministerial exercise of the Royal Prerogative to the Commons in the following areas: the signing of treaties; the diplomatic recognition of foreign governments; European Union legislation; the appointment of ministers, peers and ambassadors; the establishment of Royal Commissions; the proclamation of Orders in Council unless subject to resolutions of the Commons; the exercise of the powers of the executive not made by statute; the declarations of states of emergency; the dissolution of parliament.[10]
At the 2001 general election, Davis was re-elected as MP for Haltemprice and Howden with a decreased vote share of 43.2% and a decreased majority of 1,903.[11] He rejected a shadow ministerial position under William Hague, opting instead to chair the Public Accounts Committee.[12] Davis used his first interview as Shadow Home Secretary in November 2003 to state his personal support for a reintroduction of the death penalty for people convicted of multiple murder "where there is clear evidence and no doubt" surrounding the offender's guilt, citing the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and Moors MurdererIan Brady as examples of offenders who would fall into that category. This interview came almost 40 years after the abolition of the death penalty for murder.[13]
At the 2005 general election, Davis was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 47.5% and an increased majority of 5,116 votes.[14] Davis believed that once the true cost and unreliability of the ID card scheme was explained to the general public they would turn against it. He was also credited by some commentators with "claiming the scalps" of two Labour ministers, David Blunkett and Beverley Hughes, after both were forced to resign.[12][15][16]
2005 leadership contest
At the time of the 2005 Conservative leadership contest, David Davis was Shadow Secretary of State for the Home Department. His campaign manager in the contest was Conservative MP and Davis' deputy as Shadow Home Secretary, Andrew Mitchell (who in 2010 became Secretary of State for International Development in Prime Minister David Cameron's cabinet). Davis was initially the front runner in the contest, but after a poorly received speech at that year's Conservative Party Conference his campaign was seen to lose momentum.[17]
Referring to a Conference speech by the party's former leader, campaign manager Andrew Mitchell said: "William Hague made a great speech which many people will judge to be better than all the other leadership candidates put together. What that tells you is that being absolutely brilliant at being able to make a speech at conference is not the be-all-and-end-all of leadership. There are other things as well."[18] He was photographed at the conference alongside two women wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "It's DD for me" which was viewed by some women as being patronising to them.[19][20]
In the first ballot of Conservative MPs on 18 October 2005, Davis came top with 62 votes. As this was less than the number of his declared supporters, it became clear that the Davis bid was losing momentum. The elimination of former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke left the bookmakers' favourite, David Cameron, without a rival in the centre of the party. In the second ballot, held two days later, Cameron polled 90 votes, Davis 57 votes and Liam Fox was eliminated with 51 votes,[21] so Davis went through to the next stage with Cameron.
Despite a strong performance in a BBC Question Time head-to-head debate in the final stage of the leadership contest, Davis could not match his rival's general popularity. Conservative Party members voted to elect Cameron the new Conservative leader, Davis losing with 64,398 votes against Cameron's 134,446 votes. Cameron chose to re-appoint his rival as Shadow Home Secretary following his victory. As Shadow Home Secretary, Davis turned the Conservatives away from the Labour Party's plan to reintroduce identity cards, citing spiralling costs and libertarian issues.[22]
Alleged role in leaking of government documents
Davis is alleged to have played a role in the leaking of sensitive government documents when he was Shadow Home Secretary in 2007. According to a police statement, under interview after arrest, civil servant Christopher Galley said Davis was his first contact and that he (Davis) introduced him to Damian Green, the Shadow Immigration spokesman.[23][24] Galley initially approached Davis stating he had access to government immigration details which he was willing to leak to help the Conservative Party.[24] Under questioning by police Galley said that Green told him "do not mention Davis".[25] In April 2009, following a disciplinary hearing, Galley was dismissed from his job as a junior Home Office official for leaking information to Green.[26]
On 12 June 2008, Davis resigned from the Shadow Cabinet and announced his resignation as an MP, in order to force a by-election, and cause a wider debate on the single issue of what he believed to be the erosion of civil liberties. On 18 June 2008, he resigned from the House of Commons.[27] He stood as the Conservative Party candidate for his current seat in the subsequent by-election.[28] The announcement came a day after the narrow passing of a parliamentary vote on the Counter-Terrorism Bill, which would extend the limit on the period of detention of terror suspects without charge in England and Wales, from 28 to 42 days. Davis won re-election with an increased vote share of 71.6% and an increased majority of 15,355 votes,[29] but neither the Labour Party nor the Liberal Democrats put up a candidate. As is common at by-elections, voter turnout declined significantly from the previous general election to 34%.[30]
At the time of Davis's resignation, the Labour MP Andy Burnham made a speech which was widely interpreted as falsely implying an inappropriate relationship between Davis and the then Director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti. Burnham was forced to issue a public apology under threat of legal action.[31] As a backbench MP, Davis continued campaigning for civil liberties. He participated in the Convention on Modern Liberty, where he gave the keynote speech on the convention's final day.[32] He also spoke at the 2009 Guardian Hay Festival, where he criticised Labour's "illusory pursuit of an unobtainable security", and was well received by an overwhelmingly non-Conservative audience.[33] On 15 June 2009, Davis gave the 2009 Magna Carta Lecture at Royal Holloway, University of London, in association with the Magna Carta Trust.[34]
Davis supported civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch and in January 2010 he spoke with Tony Benn at the official launch.[35] In 2012 he helped lead the opposition to Coalition plans to allow police and security services to extend their monitoring of the public's email and social media communications.[36] He expressed concern with the findings of a VICE News investigation into the deployment of IMSI-catchers in London.[37] In 2014, along with Labour MP Tom Watson, he challenged the government's introduction of the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 in the courts.[38] Although Davis is a staunch Eurosceptic and has criticised the record of the European Court of Human Rights, he has also argued against withdrawal from the court's jurisdiction, on the basis it might encourage countries with far worse civil liberties to do likewise.[39][40]
Davis has been outspoken over UK government data deals, particularly those with Palantir Technologies. In 2021 Davis said of Palantir's involvement with the NHS, "Patient trust is vital to our NHS, so foreign tech companies such as Palantir, with their history of supporting mass surveillance, assisting in drone strikes, immigration raids and predictive policing, must not be placed at the heart of our NHS."[41] Davis again criticised Palantir's involvement with the NHS in 2023 during the procurement process for a £480 million contract for a company to create a Federated Data Platform for NHS England.[42] Davis has taken more conservative stances on some other civil liberties issues, having repeatedly voted to restrict abortion, fertility treatment and embryo research.[43] He also repeatedly voted against the furthering of LGBT rights, including supporting the controversial Section 28, which banned teachers from "promoting homosexuality" or "teaching ... the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship", and opposing the legalisation of same-sex marriage saying it was "not an issue of rights but a clash of beliefs".[44][45]
Allegations of torture
During a House of Commons debate on 7 July 2009, Davis accused the UK government of outsourcing torture, by allowing Rangzieb Ahmed to leave the country (even though the government had evidence against Ahmed, upon which Ahmed was later convicted for terrorism) to Pakistan, where it is said the Inter-Services Intelligence was given the go-ahead by the British intelligence agencies to torture Ahmed. Davis further accused the government of trying to gag Ahmed, stopping him coming forward with his accusations after he had been imprisoned back in the UK. He said, there was "an alleged request to drop his allegations of torture: if he did that, they could get his sentence cut and possibly give him some money. If this request to drop the torture case is true, it is frankly monstrous. It would at the very least be a criminal misuse of the powers and funds under the Government's Contest strategy, and at worst a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice."[46] Davis was amongst the signatories of a letter in 2012 to The Guardian condemning the Coalition's efforts to hide the UK's involvement in rendition and torture behind secret trials.[47][48][49]
Coalition government (2010–2015)
Davis was again re-elected at the 2010 general election, with a decreased vote share of 50.2% and a decreased majority of 11,602 votes.[50][51] In May 2010, with the result of a hung parliament, it was reported that David Cameron wanted to invite Davis and other right-wingers such as Michael Howard and Iain Duncan Smith into his Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition cabinet.[52] However, Davis declined and remained a critic of the government on its stance on tuition fees.[53] In January 2011, along with Jack Straw, he secured a vote in the Commons to challenge a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that prisoners should be allowed to vote and MPs subsequently chose to ignore the ruling.[54][55] He offered critical commentary on the coalition in a BBC interview in March 2012.[56]
In 2012, together with Liam Fox, Davis founded Conservative pressure group Conservative Voice to amplify the voice of grassroots members, which Davis thought was getting lost in the party.[57] In a November 2012 speech, he urged David Cameron to hold a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU by 2014. He suggested to hold two votes, the first where voters would be asked whether they wanted to renegotiate current EU arrangements, and a second where they would be asked to either accept a renegotiated deal or leave the EU altogether.[58] At the 2015 general election, Davis was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 54.2% and an increased majority of 16,195.[59][60] Also in 2015, he was one of seven Conservative MPs to defy the whip and vote against bombing Syria.[61]
Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (2016–2018)
Following Theresa May's appointment as prime minister, Davis was appointed Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Brexit Secretary) on 13 July 2016.[62] He published in ConservativeHome his initial thoughts on the way Brexit might proceed.[63] In his role as Brexit Secretary, Davis announced that Parliament will take action on translating EU laws into British laws as part of the process of Withdrawal from the European Union.[64] Davis stated that the Brexit timetable discussion would be the "row of the summer" during a TV interview with Robert Peston on Peston on Sunday.[65][66] The timetable was set on the first day of negotiations and it was dictated by the EU.[67][68]
Davis was again re-elected at the snap 2017 general election with an increased vote share of 61% and a decreased majority of 15,405 votes.[69][70] On 7 September 2017, the European Commission published the minutes of a meeting in July[71] at which Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, briefed the commission on the outcome of his first round of talks with Davis. Barnier expressed concern about Davis's commitment to the talks (he had been going to Brussels for the start and end of each round of talks, but had not been staying there for the duration).[72]
In November 2017, Davis acknowledged that the negotiations with the EU were difficult, but appealed to European countries not to "put politics above prosperity", implying that by doing so, countries like Germany would harm their own economies.[73] He blamed Germany and France for blocking trade negotiations.[74] Davis also argued that the UK and the EU should agree a free trade deal more comprehensive in scope than "any the EU has agreed before".[75]
Some politicians were angry because reports about the potential effect of Brexit on 58 economic sectors were severely edited before Davis gave them to the Exiting the European Union Select Committee. They maintained Davis – and by implication Theresa May's government – chose to disregard a binding and unanimous vote from MPs requiring the information to be provided in full.[76] Davis later appeared to contradict his earlier assurances that impact analyses had been carried out when he said the government had not produced any economic forecasts of what would happen after the UK leaves the EU.[77]
David was sidelined in December 2017, mid-way through the negotiations, with the Prime Minister's Europe AdviserOlly Robbins taking charge of negotiations.[78][79][80] In January 2018, former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said Davis did not understand the implications of Brexit for Ireland's border with Northern Ireland.[81] On 8 July 2018, Davis resigned as Brexit Secretary as he did not "believe" in the Prime Minister's Chequers plan for Brexit.[82][83] Following Davis' resignation, Steve Baker and Boris Johnson also resigned.
Since 2018
On 20 November 2018, Davis was criticised by the Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, of the pro-EU group Best for Britain, for suggesting that the UK could negotiate a free trade agreement during a post-Brexit "transition period" without first having successfully negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the European Union.[84] Following Theresa May's resignation in May 2019, Davis supported Dominic Raab as the next leader of the Conservative Party.[85] Davis was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with an increased vote share of 62.4% and an increased majority of 20,329 votes.[86][87] He has opposed the proposed extradition of Julian Assange to the United States.[88][89] Davis has also been prominent in opposing the plans of the Johnson administration to privatise NHS data, advocating more transparency in the management of patient data.[90]
On 17 March 2021, Davis MP used parliamentary privilege to criticise the Scottish Government's investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by former First MinisterAlex Salmond. Davis, a close personal friend of Salmond, told MPs during a Commons debate that there had been a "concerted effort" by SNP officials to encourage complainers to come forward, and that Nicola Sturgeon's chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, had been involved in the civil service investigation into Salmond in February 2018 – months before Nicola Sturgeon claimed to have known about the investigation. He told the House of Commons, "I have it on good authority that there exists from 6th Feb 2018 an exchange of messages between civil servants suggesting that the first minister's chief of staff is interfering in the complaints process against Alex Salmond. If true this suggests the chief of staff had knowledge of the case in February, not April as she has claimed." Nicola Sturgeon rejected Davis' claims, and one of the women who had accused Salmond of sexual harassment issued a statement through Rape Crisis Scotland calling Davis' claims "fundamentally untrue".[91][92][93]
During Prime Minister's Questions on 19 January 2022, Davis asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign, after expressing dissatisfaction with his response to Partygate. He quoted what Leo Amery (alluding to Oliver Cromwell) had said to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1940: "You have sat there too long for all the good you have done. In the name of God, go."[94][95] On 2 October 2022, Davis wrote an article in The Daily Telegraph which advocated for reform of the National Health Service and the adoption of a social insurance-based system. He wrote that the NHS was "plagued by ineffective bureaucracy" and that structural reform did not mean that the principles of the NHS being universal and free at the point of delivery needed to be abandoned.[96]
Due to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, Davis' constituency of Haltemprice and Howden was abolished, and replaced with Goole and Pocklington. At the 2024 general election, Davis was elected to Parliament as MP for Goole and Pocklington with 38.2% of the vote and a majority of 3,572.[97][98] Since May 2024, Davis has expressed doubts about the conviction of former nurse Lucy Letby and has said he intends to thoroughly research the issue and discuss it in parliament.[99][100] On 18 July 2024, Davis again used parliamentary privilege to name Liz Lloyd, Nicola Sturgeon's ex-chief of staff, as the person responsible for leaking sexual misconduct allegations against Alex Salmond to the Daily Record in 2018.[101]
Personal life
Davis met his wife, Doreen Cook, at Warwick. They married on 28 July 1973 and have three children.[102][103] Davis was a close personal friend of former leader of the Scottish National Party and First Minister of ScotlandAlex Salmond, and has twice used parliamentary privilege to criticise the Scottish Government's investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by Salmond.[91][92][101] When Salmond died in 2024, Davis paid tribute to him as "one of the great politicians of his age" and "a great leader for his country". In December 2023, Davis fought off street attackers who were kicking a man, near Parliament.[104] He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2023 Political Honours for public and political service.[105]
Related Research Articles
Kenneth Harry Clarke, Baron Clarke of Nottingham, is a British politician who served as Home Secretary from 1992 to 1993 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1993 to 1997. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Rushcliffe from 1970 to 2019 and was Father of the House of Commons between 2017 and 2019. The President of the Tory Reform Group since 1997, he is a one-nation conservative who identifies with economically and socially liberal views.
Sir Oliver Letwin is a British politician, Member of Parliament (MP) for West Dorset from 1997 to 2019. Letwin was elected as a member of the Conservative Party, but sat as an independent after having the whip removed in September 2019. He was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer under Michael Howard and Shadow Home Secretary under Iain Duncan Smith. He was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 2014 to 2016.
Theresa Mary May, Baroness May of Maidenhead,, is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead from 1997 to 2024, and has been a member of the House of Lords since August 2024. May is the second female Prime Minister, after Margaret Thatcher, and the first woman to have held two of the Great Offices of State. Ideologically, May is a one-nation conservative.
Dominic Charles Roberts Grieve is a British barrister and former politician who served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2008 to 2009 and Attorney General for England and Wales from 2010 to 2014. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Beaconsfield from 1997 to 2019 and was the Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee from 2015 to 2019.
Gregory William Hands is a British politician who served as Minister for London and Minister of State for Trade Policy from November 2023 to July 2024. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chelsea and Fulham, previously Hammersmith and Fulham, from 2005 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as its Chairman from February to November 2023. Hands has served as Minister of State for Trade Policy under four prime ministers, holding the office on four occasions, and also served as Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth from 2021 to 2022.
Haltemprice and Howden was a constituency in the East Riding of Yorkshire from 1997 to 2024.
The 2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election was a by-election held in the United Kingdom on 10 July 2008 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for constituency of Haltemprice and Howden. The by-election was triggered by the surprise and controversial resignation from the House of Commons of the sitting MP David Davis on 12 June 2008. Davis's stated intention was to spark a wider public debate on the perceived erosion of civil liberties in the UK by re-contesting his seat on this single issue platform, launched as the David Davis for Freedom campaign. The two other main political parties, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, declined to field candidates; the Liberal Democrats as they supported Davis in this issue and Labour as they considered the election a "political stunt".
Rosalyn Warner, better known as Mad Cow-Girl, was a British nurse who contested several elections as a candidate for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. She ran for election to the House of Commons for the Haltemprice and Howden seat in 2008 against incumbent Conservative MP David Davis, where she polled 412 votes.
The David Davis by-election campaign of 2008 was a political campaign against the erosion of civil liberties in the United Kingdom, led by the former Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), David Davis, labelled by Davis as the David Davis For Freedom campaign.
Stephen Charles Brine is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Winchester from 2010 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he worked as a BBC radio journalist and in public relations prior to his political career. Brine identifies as a one-nation conservative. In November 2022, he was elected chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee.
Stephen Paul Barclay is a British politician who served in various cabinet positions under prime ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak between 2018 and 2024, lastly as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2023 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Cambridgeshire since 2010, and was Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from July to November 2024.
Daniel Leonard James Poulter is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich from 2010 to 2024. Poulter is a psychiatrist, and served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Health between September 2012 and May 2015. Initially elected as a Conservative, he defected to Labour in April 2024.
Gregory David Clark is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2016 to 2019. He also was Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2015 to 2016 and Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities from July to September 2022. Later, he was the Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Tunbridge Wells from 2005 until 2024.
The 2016 Conservative Party leadership election was held due to Prime Minister David Cameron's resignation as party leader. He had resigned after losing the national referendum to leave the European Union. Cameron, who supported Britain's continued membership of the EU, announced his resignation on 24 June, saying that he would step down by October. Theresa May won the contest on 11 July 2016, after the withdrawal of Andrea Leadsom left her as the sole candidate.
Theresa May's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 13 July 2016 when she accepted an invitation of Queen Elizabeth II to form a government, succeeding David Cameron, and ended on 24 July 2019 upon her resignation. May's premiership was dominated by Brexit, terrorist attacks in Westminster, the Manchester Arena and London Bridge, the Grenfell Tower fire, and the Salisbury poisonings. As prime minister, May also served simultaneously as First Lord of the Treasury, and as Minister for the Civil Service. She also served as Leader of the Conservative Party.
The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union or, informally, Brexit Secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the business of the Department for Exiting the European Union, as well as for the UK's withdrawal from the European Union (EU), informally referred to as "Brexit". The secretary of state oversaw Brexit negotiations following a 2016 referendum, in which a majority of those who voted were in favour of exiting the EU. The officeholder was a member of the Cabinet.
The second May ministry was formed on 11 June 2017 after Theresa May returned to office following the June 2017 snap general election. The election resulted in a hung parliament with the Conservative Party losing its governing majority in the House of Commons. On 9 June 2017, May announced her intention to form a Conservative minority government, reliant on the confidence and supply of the Democratic Unionist Party; a finalised agreement between the two parties was signed and published on 26 June 2017.
The 2019 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered when Theresa May announced on 24 May 2019 that she would resign as leader of the Conservative Party on 7 June and as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom once a successor had been elected. Nominations opened on 10 June; 10 candidates were nominated. The first ballot of members of Parliament (MPs) took place on 13 June, with exhaustive ballots of MPs also taking place on 18, 19 and 20 June, reducing the candidates to two. The general membership of the party elected the leader by postal ballot; the result was announced on 23 July, with Boris Johnson being elected with almost twice as many votes as his opponent Jeremy Hunt.
Brexit was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020. As of 2020, the UK is the only member state to have left the EU. Britain entered the predecessor to the EU, the European Communities (EC), on 1 January 1973. Following this, Eurosceptic groups grew in popularity in the UK, opposing aspects of both the EC and the EU. As Euroscepticism increased during the early 2010s, Prime Minister David Cameron delivered a speech in January 2013 at Bloomberg London, in which he called for reform of the EU and promised an in–out referendum on the UK's membership if the Conservative Party won a majority at the 2015 general election. The Conservatives won 330 seats at the election, giving Cameron a majority of 12, and a bill to hold a referendum was introduced to Parliament that month.
↑ Chakrabarti, Shami; etal. (5 March 2012). "Secrets and scrutiny". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
